Swiss challenge eyed for unsolicited project

The proposed Cavite-Tagaytay-Batangas Expressway project will be subjected to a Swiss challenge next year following the expected completion of a review next month, the Public Works department said.

“We will go to NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority) for proper evaluation and approval … we are ready to give the results of the evaluation within the year,” Public Works Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral said in a press briefing on Wednesday.

The project, an unsolicited proposal from MPCALA Holdings Inc., involves the construction of a 49-kilometer expressway that is expected to cut travel times from Sta. Rosa, Laguna to Nasugbu, Batanes to less than an hour from two and a half hours.

It will be an extension of the Cavite-Laguna Expressway that is currently being constructed by MPCALA.
A mid-2019 start is planned with construction expected to be completed in 2022.

The project has an estimated cost of P22.433-billion and will be divided into three phases. The first section to Tagaytay is targeted to be finished by the first half of 2021.

MPCALA Holdings President and Chief Executive Officer Luigi Bautista said detailed engineering designs would be submitted once the project is awarded to the company.

“Once we get the original proponent status, we will negotiate the terms with DPWH then we will analyze…Once we get the project, that’s the time we will finish the detailed engineering design and get a contractor,” Bautista said.

“Sasabay yung fundraising (will be done simultaneously) with the procurement of the contractor,” he added.